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The Holy Spirit is not a Male, Conservative Evangelical

by Matthew Distefano in Christian Issues

I must begin this post with an admission that, if I’m being honest, I am not too proud of. You see, I sometimes troll. (But don’t lie, you do too!) This time, I happened to stumble upon the website of my former conservative evangelical church, and I even listened to the senior pastor’s most recent sermon about the Holy Spirit.

I’m not really sure what compelled me to do this, but perhaps it was because of the one sentence review a friend gave the sermon. With tongue firmly planted in cheek, she told me: “It was hilarious!” Call me a sinner, but after I heard that, I just couldn’t help myself — I had to give it a listen. And you know what? My friend was correct, if by “hilarious” she meant that it was a typical, less-than-compelling, watered-down approach to the divine (which can indeed be nearly laughable at times).

Often, great inaccuracies are created by a collection of small errors, so instead of getting into all the problematic points the pastor made during his sermon, I’m going to critique a few of the more subtly inaccurate things he said about who the Holy Spirit is.

To begin, the pastor insisted that the Holy Spirit is a “person.” Describing the Holy Spirit in this way isn’t necessarily wrong, but it’s also not the best descriptor. In the West (particularly in the United States), we think of a person as an autonomous individual. That is the lens through which most American Christians view each “person” of the Trinity, where each “person” has his… [Read more…] about The Holy Spirit is not a Male, Conservative Evangelical

Not Homeless Enough

by Margaret Somerville in Christian Issues

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Last month an article popped up on my newsfeed declaring that homelessness is on the decline! Waking up to my coffee in my warm suburban home, I felt the waves of relief washing over me. “Ah, another thing I don’t have to worry about today,” my guilt alleviated as I adjusted my thermostat on that unseasonably cold March day. But in a society in which we consume news 140 characters at a time and scroll rapidly past the latest sensational headlines, pronouncements such as this should be worrisome.

On March 22, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported a drop in the number of homeless residents of New Jersey, citing numbers that ranged from a statewide 3% decline in those using emergency housing, to 27% in Camden County, with two-thirds of the state’s counties reporting declines along this spectrum. This was just the most recent article among many in the past few years that have caused our consciences to leap at the good news proclaimed by the headlines. Homelessness is on the decline!

In 2013, The Atlantic announced, “The Astonishing Decline of Homelessness in America,” and a year later The Christian Science Monitor proclaimed “Homelessness declines as new thinking fuels ‘giant untold success.'” Even in the midst of a failing economy with record unemployment and unprecedented mortgage foreclosures, it was reported that there had been a 17% decrease in homelessness over the preceding decade.

At last, we had heard the call… [Read more…] about Not Homeless Enough

An Open Letter to Christian Business Owners

by April Kelsey in Christian Issues, LGBT

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Dear Christian Business Owner,

I don’t usually do open letters (it’s against my policy), but today I feel compelled to make an exception. I’m writing to you because I’m genuinely concerned and confused about your objections to serving LGBT folks.

See, when I was growing up in church, my leaders talked about how important it was to seek out opportunities to share the gospel with others. Jesus could return at any time, and people needed to be ready to meet him. For them, this wasn’t just some pretty idea; Christians had a scriptural obligation to win souls, and everyone took it seriously. I knew people who rejoiced when sinners entered their workplace, because it allowed them to plant and water the seeds of salvation through their service.

I don’t know what has happened in the past 25 years to change all of that, but it’s saddening. If you truly believe the LGBT community is most in need of Jesus, why on earth would you advocate for laws to keep them away?

Now, I realize that some of you provide goods and services for weddings, and you believe that marriage should be reserved for heterosexual couples only. You care about your reputation as a Christian within the Christian community, and you don’t want to be seen as giving approval to a union you believe to be sinful. And it’s your business, right? You started it. Theoretically, you should have the right to refuse service to anyone. I understand that.

But think for a moment about the unique… [Read more…] about An Open Letter to Christian Business Owners

Lessons from Jesus on how to apply scripture (part 2)

by Chuck Queen in Christian Issues

What was behind Jesus’s use of scripture? In my last blog, I noted that there were some scriptures Jesus let go of while others he held on to, some scriptures he ignored while others he emphasized, some scriptures he dismissed while others he applied to his own mission and ministry.

What guided his process of sorting through the inconsistencies, contradictions, different perspectives, and theological views in his Hebrew traditions and scriptures to discover and discern God’s will for his life and for the world? The scriptures themselves that pass on to us the Jesus traditions give us hints. The answer is not explicit, but it is implicit.

In the Synoptic Gospels, before Jesus begins his ministry, he encounters God at his baptism by John. Mark’s version says,

And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.” (Mark 1:10-11)

I read this metaphorically, not literally, but the description above depicts a vivid, mystical encounter with God, which functions both as a revelation of God and a revelation to Jesus of his true self as a beloved son of God.

John’s Gospel describes Jesus’s baptismal encounter with God from the perspective of John the Baptist,

And John testified, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with… [Read more…] about Lessons from Jesus on how to apply scripture (part 2)

Breaking: A Poem

by Jill Crainshaw in Poetry

This guest post is by Jill Crainshaw.

This poem emerged as I thought about news stories and headlines I encountered last week (April 3-9, 2016). Many other headlines also appeared during the week, but those referenced in the poem capture my ambivalence and worry about how we imagine and talk about life today. The poem also celebrates the ways people “walk on” in spite and in the face of life-denying headlines. Note: Doris Day’s dog is named “Squirrely.”

 

Breaking

They gave up the ghost this week.
No more walking dead

for now

except the comatose American economy or is it “finally waking up”?
My neighbor with the zombie car battery
who can’t get her to her minimum wage, 25 hours a week job
four miles away
doesn’t think so.

And Apple? showing its age “maturing”

while Doris Day
“turns 92, shows adorable pic with her puppy”
Squirrely

Meanwhile
Alabama governor’s future “looks bleaker”
Cruz and Sanders celebrate in Wisconsin
Mississippi protects “sincerely held religious beliefs”
PayPal decides not to login to North Carolina
Tennessee designates the “Holy Bible
as the official state book.”

Newsfeeds are push-back-from-the table full
while “Conflict in Eastern Ukraine leaves 1.5 million people hungry.”
Perhaps Tennessee will feed them now?
“If you offer your food to the hungry …”

Breaking news
Breaking into homes
Breaking onto shores
Breaking out
Just breaking
hearts
spirits
dreams
lives

But mere clicks away from Flipboard and… [Read more…] about Breaking: A Poem

The Freedom to Think

by Rachel Bailey De Luise in Christian Spirituality

The poet Lord Byron said: “There is something Pagan in me that I cannot shake off. In short, I deny nothing, but doubt everything.”[1] Great thinkers, across the centuries, have always used inquiry to understand the world. It doesn’t mean that nothing can be believed, but it does mean that skepticism and doubt are human inclinations that lead us toward growth.

Nietzsche’s famous quote that “God is dead”[2] was originally intended to mean that societal perspectives had “killed” God, rather than the actual death of a supernatural entity. Society (believers included) made God irrelevant.

In another work, Nietzsche wrote: “Really unreflective people are now inwardly without Christianity, and the more moderate and reflective people of the intellectual middle class now possess only an adapted, that is to say, marvelously simplified Christianity.”[3]

Is this reflective of many religious institutions and their collective members in the 21st century? Christians are often lumped together into a collective body, yet have little to no “public” intellectual power, in politics, science, and culture. Why?

Broadly speaking, Fundamentalist Christians have “privatized” Christianity, leaving little room for the intellectual exercises within the world of thought that leads to true growth and increased effectiveness in understanding and communicating our spiritual journeys.

Thus, Nietzsche’s point is well taken — surface understandings of God eventually result in a religion without a head,… [Read more…] about The Freedom to Think

When I Was New to Homophobia

by Franziska Garner in LGBT

Zella Ziona was 21 years old when she was killed on October 15th 2015.

For my partner Lisa and me it was a happy day — it was the first time we celebrated her birthday together. We had a wonderful day full of laughter, tenderness, and the simple joy of having found each other and being so absolutely in love.

Marc Pourner was 28 years old when he was killed on November 14th 2015.

For Lisa and me it was a busy day. We were more than just a little excited. Just a day before, on the 13th, we got our marriage license — in the middle of Texas. Lisa, who has lived here all her life, could barely believe it. For her it was a miracle. After all, the infamous Sodomy Laws were abolished in Texas only in 2003. Our wedding was scheduled for November 19th and there was still so much to do. We were in a bubble of delirious happiness.

I was born and grew up in Europe. Now, in April 2016, I have been in this country for nearly seven months. During this time, at least two people who identified somewhere on the LGBT spectrum have been killed in hate crimes in the United States. Dozens more were severely injured, tortured, or beaten bloody, suffering from broken bones, severe burns, or even brain damage. Hundreds more were verbally assaulted, intimidated, and bullied for being who they are.

I grew up in Germany where I read affirmative stories about gay and lesbian couples in the country’s most popular youth magazine in 1997 when I was 13 years old. I grew up there in the… [Read more…] about When I Was New to Homophobia

Lessons from Jesus on how to apply scripture (part 1)

by Chuck Queen in Christian Issues

What can Jesus teach us about appropriating scripture for the purpose of discovering and fulfilling God’s will today?

The passage in Luke 4:16-30, which sets forth Jesus’s program, is very instructive in this regard. It’s difficult to know how much of this passage, if any, is historical and how much is purely theological, since the passage is unique to Luke. Luke is setting forth the mission and agenda of Jesus as he understands it. What I find fascinating is how Luke presents Jesus’s use of scripture and what we can learn from it.

First, we learn from Jesus that there are scriptures we need to let go of because they simply do not apply to us and they have nothing to do with God’s will for us today. Luke says,

When Jesus came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. Then he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:14-21).

Actually… [Read more…] about Lessons from Jesus on how to apply scripture (part 1)

Bringing Common Sense to the Abortion Debate

by James Jennings in Christian Issues

This guest post was written by James Jennings.

I’ve been involved with the abortion issue since the early 1980s and my views have changed over the years. They changed because I spoke respectfully with people and listened to what they had to say. In this process I’ve found that it’s not uncommon that we both moderated our views.

But too often, our nation and churches are unable to civilly address this difficult issue. Discussions about abortion are rarely approached with reason or love. When scripture calls us to “Come, let us reason together,” it isn’t referring to issues that everyone agrees on. God calls us all to be respectful, listen to other views, prayerfully consider opposing views, and use the rational brain that He has provided us with.

Whatever side of the debate you find yourself on, I suggest a few guidelines for productive discussion:

It’s useless to argue. If someone makes a categorical statement and it’s obvious they’re unwilling to consider another view, it’s best to leave the persuading up to God. Anyone who is resolute in their views and is unable to show humility needs your prayer (as a fall is likely to come soon).

Leave your emotions at the door. There’s a place for passion and there’s a place for reason. Most discussions about abortion are overflowing with the former and missing the latter. The Epistle of James is clear about how dangerous the tongue is — and that applies to the keyboard as well!

If your logical, honest, fact-based… [Read more…] about Bringing Common Sense to the Abortion Debate

Why Bible believers are not really Bible believers

by Chuck Queen in Christian Issues

A good number of evangelical Christians self-identify as Bible believers. It’s a peculiar way for a Christian to self-identify when you think about it. A Christian is someone who has some kind of relationship to Christ. After all Christ is part of the word Christian. And yet for a good number of evangelical Christians Bible believer is the term of choice.

It’s not accurate though, because no self-identified Bible believer actually believes the whole Bible — at least not in the way they claim to. Bible believers claim that the whole Bible, every part of it, is inerrant and infallible. It all has equal authority they say. But no Bible believer actually lives that way. I can offer a case in point from my own history back in the day when I claimed to be a Bible believer. Even then I had difficulty with some passages like 1 Timothy 2:11-15 which says,

“Let a woman learn in silence with full submission. I permit no woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she is to keep silent. For Adam was formed first, then Eve; and Adam was not deceived but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. Yet she will be saved through childbearing, provided they continue in faith and love and holiness, with modesty.”

Even in my conservative days this was hard to swallow. Somehow I couldn’t bring myself to claim the Bible believer’s motto for this passage, namely: “If it’s in the Bible, God said it, and I believe it, and that settles it.” This text seems to clearly forbid… [Read more…] about Why Bible believers are not really Bible believers